WILLIAM

Yes, definately some late surviving banger blue versions would be most welcome. Obviously you cannot please 'all of the people all of the time' but I was a little surprised at the blue TOPS domino versions chosen in the first batch being relative early withdrawals; 093 withdrawn in 1982 and 252 in 1980 respectively.

Just found this picture I took at Eastleigh back in 1998. Looks to be a mix of warflats with yellow ends (at the front) and those without. Gives me enough of an excuse to order some in both liveries.

That simple! Thanks Gibbo

Just found this thread as I am too trying to find out what the (T) stands for on some of the Bachmann NSV TPO Sorting Vans? There wasn't a definitive answer above? Could these coaches run with airbraked stock? Thank you.

Would make a good Collectors Club model. Weren't the London Transport Museum already considering producing a limited edition in this livery however or did that idea die?

For those still looking - both new TPE 68s showing as available now at Hattons - more than 10 in stock of both as I type.

040 seems to have had a strange history with its nameplates. As you say it appears to have lost its crests by the late 70's and then the nameplates themselved after overhaul c. May 84 only for a nameplate with crest to reappear on one side only by September 84? (assuming the Flickr photograph dates are correct)

Can get away with load 6 on the Holyhead diagram

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, fingers crossed, but I thought from the pictures on Hattons website that they got this detail correct at least on BOC16 (0014)? https://www.hattons.co.uk/450705/heljan_boc16_100_ton_boc_tank_in_boc_liquid_nitrogen_livery_with_red_stripe_and_gps_bogies_0/stockdetail.aspx

But why is it so pointless to try and have a reasoned debate about product prices? My earlier comment on the price of the 58, which got badly bounced on, was in part trying to understand if there were any improvements over the previously issued Heljan model to help justify the significant increase in price (given there are no development, tooling costs etc.) over the normal inflation factors. Is it so wrong to debate such a thing on an open forum such as this? Is it really off topic to the new announcements? I can imagine it is frustrating to be a moderator sometimes when they're doing this 24/7 and I put the moment of bluntness down to this as these guys do a great job overall but it's a bit stange to be allowed to applaud or even laugh at such public rudness but not be able to discuss product pricing in an attempted constructive way.

That's part of my point though, even given Olivias 'interesting' pricing strategy, a Heljan Railfreight one would cost you £135 from them whereas with full allowable discount you are talking £157 for this EFE Railfreight release (noting it is also weathered).

It's unfortunate they could not have been more competitively priced for an old tooling. I wonder if there are any upgrades against the Heljan version still available at Olivias Trains that appear to have been slow sellers? At least the number font on the Railfreight liveried version looks right now.

Hattons have promptly come back to me and confirmed the models mentioned in their emails are still being produced however their expected allocation has been lowered so they have to cancel some pre-orders. They apologised for the situation and confusion caused.

I think you are right about very limited use but it appears if you paint anything yellow it sells well.

Given the various comments since I posted this I am beginning to think that, although explicit, the emails from Hattons are incorrectly worded and what they really wanted to say is they have pre--sold their allocatioon and will not be able to get anymore of these particular items. I've emailed them asking for confirmation.

Thanks. Corrected my original post.

Just received an unexpected email from Hattons saying Hornby have cancelled their forthcoming Network Rail Mk3 DVT R4990. I only managed to pre-order one a couple of weeks ago as many retailers were saying they had sold out their allocation on pre-order already! Strange? Licencing issue?

I don't understand the logic of keeping existing pre-orders open but not accepting new? How will you know if or when there is enough interest to make the project viable? I had/have 2 on pre-order.

I've done a bit of that in the distant past but I also liked the slight variations in label details & positions you also sometimes got. As discussed above however I have regretted this approach with Bachmann as I'm now strugglng to assemble rakes of some of the most popular wagons that 'Tugs' post above generally lists (not to mention that some are now 5 times the price of when they were first released!).

Yes, if you click on the picture it takes you to the Flickr page with description.

To answer my own question after an epic trawl of Flickr, this picture shows the ICA tanks in use from new in 1989 in the UK despite them not being used on the Burngullow to Irvine 'Silver Bullet' workings which were TIA wagons. Phew!

I've been trying to work out in which year did Dapol's version of the 'Silver Bullet' china clay wagons first enter use in the UK. This has proved to be not as straight forward as I'd have thought. The original 'Silver Bullets' used from 1989 on the famous Cornwall - Scotland services were, from what I can make out, British registered TIA wagons (originally supplied by Tiger Rail numbered in the UIC 33 70 7890 XXX-X series). The wagon version produced by Dapol, whilst very simlar to the TIAs, are actually ICAs and whilst they too were bulit from 1989 they remained French registered (UIC 33 87 7898 XXX-X series). When you look closely there are quite a few differences between the two wagon types particularly around the depth of the sole bar, size and position of the number panels, size of handbrake wheels etc. The sole bars on the TIAs where also blue (as per the picture earlier up the thread), whilst they were black on the ICAs. So my question is still, if anyone can help, when were these latter wagons, as modelled Dapol, first used in the UK?

Yes, that's the big question, how much would they need to be to be economically viable for Bachmann and still sell in reasonable numbers? Still less then £130 each I'd hope.

I only 'need' two non-generator Railtrack JJAs but made the mistake of assuming Bachmann woud keep releasing them. If they were released in NR yellow however, as mentioned earlier in the thread, I'd be interested in a rake of 5 of those too.

For me however there is a difference between starting them at 99p (or cost) and letting them go to whatever the supply/demand dictates, and starting the auction at £130 through sheer opportunism. Anyway, I don't want to make this a thread about the morals of selling, rather there is clearly a demand so Bachmann, if you can, please make some more JJAs! :-)